response 43 of 71:

Oct 18 19:06 UTC 2001

This item didn't really go where I was hoping it would; we already 
had the Napster item.
 
One particular meltdown I've been watching is the sales of Mariah 
Carey.  Virgin/EMI lured her away from Columbia/Sony with a deal worth
between 80 and 100 million dollars for four albums.  However, 
the sales of her new album GLITTER have not been impressive at 
all.  The album debuted at #7 with first week sales of about 116,000
copies; this was roughly one-third of what her last album sold 
in its debut week.  The album has steadily marched down the charts.
As of today it's at #34, with total sales of about a million.
Admittedly this includes the month following the attacks, but 
even in comparison to other CD sales right now, this is an 
incredibly bad performance, given what EMI invested in her.
(A million CDs sold would be a fine figure if the label hadn't
invested around 100 times that in the artist...)
(For comparison, the soundtrack to "O Brother Where Art Thou,"
which cost next to nothing up front, is at #19 on the chart.)

EMI chief Ken Berry has been sacked, though the Mariah deal 
was probably only part of his problems; he failed twice to get the 
company merged with another label.  There's a published rumor 
today (http://www.newmediamusic.com) that EMI is looking to 
extract itself from its contract with Mariah.

I suspect -- haven't done the research -- that the multimillion dollar
advance deals given to superstars have almost always failed for the 
labels.  I shouldn't just pick on Mariah here: I very much doubt that 
REM's megadeal paid off for Warner.